Electroless nickel deposition on silane modified bamboo fabric through silver, copper or nickel activation

Palladium-free process for the electroless nickel deposition on bamboo fabric (BF) has been developed. The process is based on 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) chemically grafted onto BF via a simple etchless method. Hence, Ni/BF composites can be obtained in three steps, namely: (i) the grafting of APTMS onto BF, (ii) the silver (Ag0), copper (Cu0) or nickel (Ni0) activating of the BF surface, and (iii) the nickel metallization using electroless plating bath. IR, XPS, XRD and SEM were used to characterize each step of the process. The nickel coating through silver activation has a smoother surface, higher electrical conductivity and better electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) by comparing to the other two activation samples. Magnetic property of the Ni/BF composites was measured, and composite from Ni activation has a larger saturation magnetization than the two left composites. All the nickel coatings via different metal activations are adhered firmly to the BF substrates, as determined by a standard adhesive Scotch®-tape test.